There should be no liquid running off a compost pile. If there is any liquid runoff the compost is too wet to compost properly.

i didnt take a pic of my CP from the downhill side, but as you can see in the pic there is a tarp underneath my pile.
on the downhill side i dug a small trench and laid the tarp in it, so when the water does go through it builds up there and you can scoop it up and use it.

and theres nothing wrong with soaking down your compost pile, if you do and your pile still reaches 150 degrees then you are doing something right....

I think the drippings from a compost pile aren't technically "tea". Most refer to it as leachate and depending on the "ingredients" of the pile, it may have special handling requirements.

When new piles are started it is sometimes difficult to get a decent, even soaking. The materials tend to shed the water more at that stage than later on once the material has begun decomposition. So it does happen that some leachate comes out.

I have had liquid drip from the tumblers on occasion and I solve that by tumbling to get the water mixed back in. No big deal.

How to catch it from a pile? Never done it but I think a tarp would be my first try, cheap, and if I don't like it, I'm not out a lot of effort.

Lloyd

Tarps...interesting. We don't have visible leachate. My understanding is that much of the nitrogen will leach out of your compost pile naturally so if you want to use it, you have to catch it. Maybe not as diverse as a hot tea, but still, we have plenty of uses for nitrogen so I think it would be worthwhile. I would think it would have some bacteria too.... Good point about new heaps/materials.

The accessible side of our bins is on the slope away from the vegetable garden side, so a trench will conflict a bit with access. Seems like one might want one's heaps to leach INTO the garden, ideally.

This morning was thinking about putting drainage pipes under the heap. But a tarp would be much simpler.

Nitrogen ought not to "leach" out. It may be gassed off and that is what one can smell on occasion. Using a dry carbon material (leaves or straw type thing) layer on top can reduce some of the loss as it's supposed to absorb the N somehow. I remember reading about using a thin dusting of clay or soil and N binding to it but I never followed that up.

Lloyd

Hmm got to break out the chemistry, I see! N2 in the air doesn't have a smell; what form would smell?

Nitrogen salts from chemical fertilizers are highly soluble and run off. Why was I thinking compost would act like that??

Or maybe I was thinking that it would be in other small leachable forms. More complex chemicals or particles of plant material. So I still need to learn what forms of nitrogen come from the breakdown of plant material -- and whether there is any point at all to collecting leachate. Easy enough to experiment though, with this tarp idea.

I've also heard of covering heaps with a tarp, but I thought that was to keep in heat, not gas.

By the way, I'm not sure how to locate west9491's photos. Possibly in some gallery on this forum?

Grade twelve drop-out here so I am definitely not the dude to figure it out! There was a guy on here a few years ago who knew this stuff inside and out but alas, he no longer comes around.

This link explained it in a way I could somewhat grasp. I note that it does say some leaching may occur under high moisture conditions.

Lloyd

great link! the stinky gases are ammonia and stuff. I had to smile at how they downplay the leaching of all three NPK 'because it only occurs when raining'. Over here we are suffering from our third multi-inch rainstorm in a month... Granted you could use tarps, to prevent that.

Being lazy, I think I will set up at least one heap with a tarp underneath to collect leachate after I turn it. And look more into the carbon/nitrogen ratio, someday...

OK, I had to get in on this one. Years ago I built a pile on some used corrugated roofing and noticed some rich leachate running to the lower end so I dug a small hollow there and placed a bowl in it to catch the stuff. It is strong so a little goes a long way. Then I "scored" some discarded panels of expanded metal from an industrial demolition site and a 30 inch corrugated plastic culvert from another. I set the panels atop some concrete blocks and the culvert on end on top of that and there is just enough room beneath for a black plastic tub (the kind they sell at hardware stores for mixing mortar). This is the best set-up I've had yet. Not only can I avoid wasting a drop of the small amount of grow juice that escapes, but the bin thus formed draws air from underneath the grate as it heats which means a lot less turning, if any. I harvested some of the drippings today...about 2 quarts, black and looking like "Texas Tea", and after diluting in about 40 gallons of water it was still quite strong. By definition this stuff is soluble so plants will tolerate it strong and boy do they grow! I did the aerated tea with it too one year and it worked well too. I just used a 5 gallon bucket and a small aquarium air pump. Not sure if it is any better but I like to experiment (can u tell?).

Watermanjeff, that system sounds very interesting. Would you mind posting a picture of the apparatus. I'd love to multitask with my compost pile producing tea as well, Fabuloso!